Fertliser producers ask farmers to blow whistle on sharp practices

Farmers across the country have been urged to embrace the federal government’s whistle blowing policy by exposing any agro dealer trying to sell government’s fertiliser above the approved price of N5,500 per bag in their localities or hoarding the commodity.

A member of the Board of Trustees of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Barrister Ibrahim Shehu Birma, told Daily Trust in an exclusive interview yesterday, that a bag of the government’s fertiliser has an inscription ‘FGN’, price tag of N5,500 on it as well telephone numbers with which the farmers can blow the whistle.

Barrister Birma, who is also the chairman of Superphosphate Fertiliser and Chemical Limited in Kaduna, said the market would soon be flooded with the commodity as his association had received enough raw materials such as phosphate shipped from Morocco, urea, DAP and MOP from the federal government to blend enough of the commodity.

He said the association was targeting one million metric tonnes to be produced as against about 700,000 metric tonnes of the nation’s current demand, adding that with the massive supply, issues of adulterated fertiliser in circulation would be checked as it would no longer be attractive.

On the concern raised by the agro dealers over the transportation of the commodity nation-wide, Barrister Birma said the dealers were to buy a bag of the commodity at N5,000 and expected to sell at N5,500 to cover up the transportation fares as well as their marginal gain.

He said there were not less than nine blending centres evenly spread across the country, where the authorized agro dealers can pick up the number of fertiliser they paid for.

Barrister Brima said FESPSAN was collaborating with the relevant security agencies, especially the office of the National Security Adviser for easy movement of the urea fertiliser because of its security implication.

He commended the federal government for taking bold step to address the long time issues surrounding fertiliser distribution in the country, noting that if the current tempo was sustained, by next year, problems associating with fertiliser distribution and affordability would be finally addressed.

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